National Student Clearinghouse® and Hobsons Collaborate to Deliver Powerful Online Tools to Help Track Alumni Outcomes and Student Success

HERNDON, Va. and ARLINGTON, Va., July 9, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- The National Student Clearinghouse® and Hobsons announced today their collaboration to provide schools and districts with a robust way to track the college outcomes of their students. Through this collaboration, the two organizations will integrate the Clearinghouse's StudentTracker(SM) education research and reporting service with Naviance®, giving K-12 school and district administrators direct access to StudentTracker reporting from within Hobsons' college and career readiness solution. The Clearinghouse provides educational reporting, verification, and research services to more than 3,300 U.S. postsecondary institutions and more than 3,600 high schools and districts. Naviance is the world's most widely adopted college and career readiness platform for K-12 serving more than 5 million students across 5,500 schools.

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StudentTracker tracks student postsecondary enrollment and outcomes nationwide, helping schools and districts assess their college preparation efforts and measure the college retention and graduation rates of their students. StudentTracker offers easy-to-read charts and graphs on postsecondary enrollment and achievements of high school graduates. Data are tracked at the individual student level, giving schools granular insight into the college enrollment and completion results of their alumni.

Naviance empowers students and families to take control of their college and career planning and enables school counselors to deliver expert guidance, while allowing school and district administrators to track results on student outcomes and student success. Naviance helps schools, districts, and their students navigate the path to career and college readiness through a comprehensive suite of college planning, career assessment, and goal-setting tools that connect classroom learning to real-world goals and objectives.

The integration will allow schools and districts to subscribe to StudentTracker, receive the data available via the National Student Clearinghouse, and access StudentTracker reports – directly from within Naviance.

"The most important responsibility we have as educators is preparing students for success beyond our schools' walls," said Houston Independent School District Superintendent Terry Grier. "But we can't do it in a vacuum. The integration of StudentTracker and Naviance will allow us to measure postsecondary success quickly and easily with objective data, helping us evaluate the effectiveness of our programs so we can further develop what works and eliminate what doesn't."

"Our mission is to serve the education community. This collaboration allows us to extend our mission by reporting on the education pathways students choose and their outcomes through the Naviance platform," stated Rick Torres, President and CEO of the Clearinghouse. "With ready access to this type of student information, K-12 decision makers will be able to gauge the effectiveness of their programs. This ability to report on student choices and success, in real time, is exclusive to the Clearinghouse's StudentTracker service. Even as the completion and success criteria continue to evolve, the Clearinghouse is uniquely able to accurately track a student's changing educational choices and link them to the outcomes of their choices."

"With the increasing emphasis on college and career readiness as the measuring stick for education success, schools need to know not only whether their graduates apply to and enroll in college, but whether they succeed once they get there," said Stephen Smith, president of Hobsons' K-12 division. "Working with the Clearinghouse will better equip schools and districts to prepare students to meet their college and career goals and measure their results."

About Hobsons
Hobsons helps educators, administrators, students, and families maximize success through every stage of the learning lifecycle. Hobsons' personalized learning, academic planning, postsecondary enrollment, and student support solutions serve millions of students across more than 7,500 schools, colleges, and universities worldwide.

About the National Student Clearinghouse
The National Student Clearinghouse (a nonprofit formed in 1993) is the unique and trusted source for higher education enrollment and degree verifications. The Clearinghouse serves as a single point of contact for the collection and timely exchange of accurate and comprehensive enrollment, degree, and certificate records on behalf of its more than 3,300 participating higher education institutions, which represent 96 percent of all students in public and private U.S. institutions. The Clearinghouse also provides thousands of high schools and districts with continuing collegiate enrollment, progression, and completion statistics on their alumni.

Through its verification and reporting services, the Clearinghouse saves the education community cumulatively nearly four hundred million dollars annually. Most Clearinghouse services are provided to colleges and universities at little or no charge, including enhanced transcript and research services, enabling institutions to redistribute limited staff and budget resources to more important student service efforts. Clearinghouse services are designed to facilitate an institution's compliance with the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, The Higher Education Act, and other applicable laws.

In addition, the Clearinghouse provides accurate, timely enrollment and degree verifications to student loan providers, employers, student credit issuers, the U.S. Department of Education, and others who access its registry more than half a billion times annually.

SOURCE Hobsons